So, seeing Angry Jedi recommending something that is currently airing made me realize I need to step up my game for further dominion of the Anime thread... Nah, just kidding, with that out of the way, I second his rec, DanMachi has more than proven itself to be about more than Hestia's rack.

But I bring you something that might be even better depending on your tastes, and that is Kekkai Sensen, otherwise known as Blood Blockade Battlefront.

A story created by the original creator of Trigun and animated by Studio Bones, who are known for their superbly animated battle sequences, this one came in hyped and has so far delivered, and then some.

As some backstory, years back "The Beyond" opened up in New York city and encased the entire city in a shroud of permanent fog while also allowing a portal to stay open between reality and.... well, the beyond. Letting former New York, now known as Hellsalem's lot (Or Jerusalem's lot in the manga) to become an even bigger melting pot than it already is in real life by adding monsters, magic, and all other kinds of supernatural creatures. And it is in this place where we find Libra, the organization tasked with keeping the balance while at the same time keeping any supernatural threats to our reality in check and well within the foggy shroud of Hellsalem's Lot.

Also where our main character, a young man by the name of Leonardo Watch has been trying to find help in order to solve a little problem he got himself into by chance when he was visiting the city about 6 months before the start of the series proper.

The plot isn't something to write home about, stories about supernatural crimefighting organizations fighting supernatural threats are a dime a dozen after all, what shines over here is the execution, each episode is slightly different, with creative uses of different points of view as well as keeping a fast pace that is oddly not hard to follow. It really goes beyond the typical formula of "find threat, have trouble with threat, character finds out weakness no one thought of, deal with threat" that a lot of these types of shows seem to bog down into, the rest of the cast is full of personalities that feel very unique and interesting, as well as plenty of villains and antagonists that are just as fleshed out.

The one shining beacon of amazing in this anime however, is the soundtrack. Good God almighty the soundtrack is amazing, plenty of Jazz, but there's other genres popping here and there as well, it honestly feels a lot like the soundtrack for good oldies Cowboy Bebop and Baccano, as well as having a great OP (Kinda surprised to see Bump of Chicken wasn't killed in the great J-Rock purges of the late 00s) as well as an ED so amazing I actually recommend against watching it, it is wonderfully animated and the song is catchy enough to stay in your head for ages.

Overall, BBB is going strong and it shows no sign of stopping anytime soon, it's hard to find anime these days that is a worthy contender for Anime of the Season (or even the year) without dipping into anime boobs, normal high school students, childhood friends you promised yourself to when you were kids, or any other of your typical anime cliches, but this one is making it in spades, it is up to episode 7 as of this writing, but Funnimation picked it up and it's starting to stream dubbed from the first episode as of this weekend if subs aren't your thing, this also means that the series is available on Hulu, or you can track down a fansub of your own if you feel like it, whatever you do, go watch it, now if at all possible.

And right after I download a season of Galactic Heroes... it gets licensed. I don't know whether I should keep going or wait for the official English media. For those not familiar with it, people keep telling me Legend of the Galactic Heroes is like the best space opera ever or something. From all the descriptions I've heard it sounds like House of Cards but with space ships. The anime was produced with a ridiculous budget that for a long time people thought would make it economically insane to license it for western distribution.

In other anime news, I have a feeling One-Punch Man could be big when the anime starts. I've been all over the manga for a while now and it's both entertaining and beautifully-drawn. I'm not one for fight epics anymore, much less sentai-type stuff, but OPM turns it on its head just enough while still providing good action. Here's the anime teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roRdi-Fc5I

Basically, OPM is a send-up of superheroes. It's from a very Japanese angle of course, but I think its gags are applicable to western comic superheroes too. Despite making fun of the whole Justice League motif, the battles they get in look cool as hell. One cool thing the manga does is draw out scenes like individual movie frames. Put them together in GIF form and you get this:

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Since 2005, the Squadron of Shame has been embedded at the vanguard of underappreciated, obscure and noteworthy videogames. Crossing title after title off our collective Piles of Shame, the Squad continues its mission of exploring noteworthy games from the frontiers of civilized lands and reporting, discussing and podcasting in a spirit of cameraderie. Join us!

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Since 2005, the Squadron of Shame has been embedded at the vanguard of underappreciated, obscure and noteworthy videogames.